Please log in.
Before you can vote, you need to register. Please log in or create an account.
Home: Bathtub: Heating
Centrally Heated Bath Tub   (+1)  [vote for, against]
All Prior Art acknowledged.

This idea may not be sufficiently original to be worthy of a separate posting.

There are several "bath heating" ideas on the HB. One proposes integrated electric elements, another an external recirculating heater. There are also the "vacuum" and "thermos" bath ideas.

The BorgCo heated bath employs energy transferred from a circulating hot water central heating system.

The bath is a double-wall design. In the space between the walls is a copper coil, fixed to the outer shell, and connected to the central heating circuit. The void is filled with an inert oil. The thermostat is in the oil. Stirring may be necessary; since the oil is electrically insulating, an open-frame synchronous motor can be safely immersed, much like the motor in a heatpump.

The bather sets the temperature and then fills the bath with water. The control is a waterproof handheld device using infra-red, or RF may be better.

There are the usual overtemperature safety devices.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 18 2012

This is a device that's a shunt from in-floor water heating ?
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 18 2012


Yes.

Tell us, what part of "energy transferred from a circulating hot water central heating system" didn't you understand ? We ask merely for information.

// Disappointing coming from you.. //

They're there. Doesn't mean they work. It's just some stupid stuff the lawyers wanted put in.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 18 2012


//energy transferred from a circulating hot water central heating system//

Well, that could just mean turning on the tap. It still could count as “circulating”, ’cause, you know, the water cycle and all.
-- ytk, Nov 18 2012


//overtemperature safety devices// sp. "overtemperature capability devices".
-- Custardguts, Nov 18 2012


//what part of . . . didn't you understand// Well, apart from reading a suboptimally placed semi-colon as a comma...

The part where you have it confused with a 'still or electric-radiator and start blathering on about "copper coils" and "inert oil". Why not just run directly from the in-floor, bypassing the need for a separate pump, and use metal fins to spread the heat out on the inner wall.

Bun, despite blather.
-- FlyingToaster, Nov 18 2012


// the need for a separate pump //

There is no separate pump.

<Thought Police>

"There never was any separate pump ..."

</Thought Police>

There MIGHT be a stirrer. A stirrer is not the same as a pump.

// use metal fins to spread the heat out on the inner wall //

The oil provides thermal hysteresis, and even heating. The circulating water could be 60C or hotter; coupling that directly to the bath would be a Bad Thing.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 18 2012


The most intriguing concept put forth in this idea is the notion that the Borg retain legal counsel.
-- Alterother, Nov 19 2012


Not to mention the fact that the Borg take baths - who knew? I wonder if they have little Borg ducks?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 19 2012


And cube-shaped bubbles!
-- pocmloc, Nov 19 2012


Of course they retain legal counsel!

(What they mean by "retain" might be guessed from the fact that they're baiting a hot tub with //safety devices// of questionable functionality)
-- lurch, Nov 19 2012


legal council... borg... seems like a tautology in some way.
-- RayfordSteele, Nov 19 2012


Why not fill the void between the shells with... water!

The thermostat is in the water between the shells, but instead of opening and closing a water valve, it turns on and off a small pump (not in your original design).

This small pump pulls water from the lowest (coolest) point between the shells, sends some of it through a tempering valve (where it mixes with hot water from the central heating circuit), and sends the remainder back to the central heater.

The water from the tempering valve goes back into space between the shells, entering at the highest point.

The motor driving the pump isn't submerged in water, but nevertheless should be watertight, electrically insulated, and GFCI protected. Just to satisfy the lawyers, mind you.

Naturally, both the thermostat switch, and the tempering valve (thermostat valve) could be adjusted by remote control.

The tempering valve's set point would be kept a couple degrees above the temperature at which the thermostat turns the pump off.

Bigsleep: Towel bars! Alas, they are already baked. A bed! That's baked too, drat. A water bed? Hmm...
-- goldbb, Nov 20 2012



random, halfbakery